


Nefarious Spirit

by KawaiiNinja



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Corruption, Darkness, Established Relationship, Evil, F/M, Nightmares, Pain, Spiritual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25142506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KawaiiNinja/pseuds/KawaiiNinja
Summary: "To bend another's energy your own spirit must be unbendable. Or you will be corrupted and destroyed."Aang begins to feel something dark stirring inside him, slowly corrupting him. And one day, he finally snaps. It's up to his friends to figure out a way to rid Aang of this darkness.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Kudos: 7





	Nefarious Spirit

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy this oneshot!

_"To bend another's energy your own spirit must be unbendable. Or you will be corrupted and destroyed."_

He remembered the feeling of nearly failing, Ozai's energy coursing over him, seeping into his soul. Aang twisted, tangling his legs into his sheets.

"Aang." A feminine voice called out to him. Though he knew it wasn't Katara. He had never heard it before even though something told him that he knew who it was somehow. Someone from his past life? He turned his head and that's when he saw it. A glowing white spirit with blue swirling patterns. She was smaller in size, unfamiliar yet familiar.

"Who are you?"

"I am Raava."

"Raava?"

"I am part of you, Aang. And I have always been since your birth along with all your other past lives. I am attached to your spirit, intertwined as one." Aang's eyes widened in realization.

"The Avatar spirit." It made sense to him all the sudden. Back when the first Avatar was alive Raava fused with him inside his body. Wan. The name was an echo on his tongue.

"Why are you here... in my dream?" He dared to ask. He had heard Raava call out before when he was put into that ice berg and other instances. "I didn't damage the Avatar spirit again did I?" He recalled that he lost collection to the Avatar State after Azusa shot him with lightning. And somehow he regained it, during his fight with Ozai.

"Much worse Avatar Aang. I have come to tell you that we are being corrupted."

"Corrupted? How?!" He didn't understand!

"The fight with Ozai when you took away his bending. Part of his dark spirit essence entered your body. And now it will continue to fester and grow until our spirit is fully corrupted."

"What does that mean? What's going to happen?!" Aang could feel himself panic.

"You will hurt the ones you love, and kill them," Raava said sadly. Aang could notice a murky redness creeping along the spirit and along his own feet, turning black. "And then we I'll both die."

"There's gotta be a way to fix this right? Right?! Please tell me there is something we can do!"

"I do not know, Aang. But we are in this together. You must figure out a way to help us. I am counting on you." The floor suddenly began to fall away as Aang screamed.

He could feel his legs collide against something wet and sticky. The fetid smell of blood filling his nostrils. Aang screamed, stumbling back as he felt himself fall against something, a body to be exact. It was Sokka, who laid their ghostly white, blood pooling from his body.

He turned and then saw Katara. "Katara!" She lifted her head to reveal empty eye sockets with blood trickling out of them. Aang shrieked in terror, feeling sick to his stomach.

"You killed him!" She roared. And suddenly she was bending the blood around him, shooting it into his mouth. He gagged, the metallic taste burning his throat.

Somehow he managed to control himself his tattoos glowing. The blood was forced out of his body. "ENOUGH!" His hand shot out like lighting, snatching her by the throat, eyes glowing hazy white and red. All he felt was a burning fury, and laughter escaping his lips at the sound of Katara choking. Then came the sound of bone snapping. He dropped her as Aang's eyes widened gazing down at her body. Her neck was broken, and she laid there... dead...

And then he let out a blood curling scream. His body lurched sweat pouring down his skin as he suddenly threw up. Though it wasn't bile that came out from him, but rather something red that stained the sheets. _Blood_.

"Aang!" His door was thrown open to reveal Katara and the rest of the gang behind her. Sokka's concerned face, Zuko and Toph who stood behind.

His body felt like it was on fire, searing pain tearing his insides. Aang gagged, throwing up more blood as Katara gasped sharply.

"He's sick!" His vision was beginning to blur as he could feel a cool hand touching him.

 _It hurts.._. he could hear Raava within him. "It h-hurts..." he croaked. "Help me..."

Katara immediately formed water over her hands making them glow to try to heal Aang's wounds or whatever was occurring. Though she could find nothing wrong with him. "I don't understand! What's wrong?!"

"His heart isn’t the same," Toph said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sokka turned to the blind earth bender.

"I don't know! I just know that his heart is sick somehow!"

"But I don't sense anything physically wrong with him!" Katara said.

"Is this a spiritual problem?" Zuko questioned. Just then everyone froze at the sound of Aang laughing.

The bald monk lifted his head, wiping the blood from his mouth as he laughed louder this time.

"This isn't funny, Aang!" Katara snapped, reaching out towards him. He flinched, recoiling from his tough as his usual silver eyes were now tinted red. This confused the water bender as she gasped.

"I'm fine," Aang snapped, standing up from the bed.

"No, you're not fine!"

"You don't understand," Aang stepped away. "You all need to stay away from me."

"You threw up blood!" Zuko exasperated.

"Aang.." Katara started.

"No," the Avatar shook his head. He turned to walk towards the door ignoring the water bender.

"Aang, don't walk away from this!" His wrist was grasped. It was like everything had exploded, his vision turning black. The Avatar turned around, roaring as his tattoos began to glow a hazy red surprising everyone as he knocked Katara back slamming her into the wall. The impact was hard enough to make the side of her head bleed.

"Katara!" Sokka took out his sword, swinging it at Aang as they Airbender used earth bending to sending him flying out the window of his room. Zuko used his fire bending only to feel himself being whipped across the room as Toph tried to attack Aang.

"Snap out of it Twinkle Toes!" She gasped as her earth bending did no effect on him as she was slammed against the floor, fire burning her skin as she screamed. Katara groaned, lifting her head as she felt the front of her shirt being grasped and face to face with Aang's glowing red eyes boring into hers.

"Pathetic," Aang sneered. He lifted up a hand creating a swirling dragon of fire, water, air, and earth ready for the killing blow.

"Aang!..." that simple statement was enough to snap him out of it as his attack barely missed her. The glowing subsided as the Avatar dropped his girlfriend, stumbling back in immense horror.

"Katara?..." he then caught sight of her bleeding head and the others around the room, Zuko whose lower body was frozen in half and Toph's burned back. The window was broken where he had flung out Sokka. It all dawned on him at once. He did this... he hurt them...

"No..." he gasped, tears streaming down his cheeks. "No!" With that he fled from the room.

"Aang!" Katara groaned, watching her boyfriend flee. This wasn't right! She knew him, she knew that he would never dare to hurt anyone not even her or his friends. It took all of her willpower to summon water to heal her head. The dull ache subsided as she stumbled over to Zuko to free him and to heal Toph's back.

Zuko rushed to the window to peer down to find that the water tribe boy had used a dagger from his belt to impede himself into the wall, saving himself from the fall. "Sokka's okay!" The fire bender then proceeded to climb out to find a way to help Sokka using his fire bending to keep himself floating for a short amount of time.

Soon enough Zuko returned with Sokka into the room. Toph groaned, sitting up. The burn was feeling better, but it would certainly take more time to heal.

"Katara! Are you okay?!" Sokka rushed up to his sister's side.

"I'm fine, I healed myself. It doesn't hurt as bad."

"What just happened?! Did Aang you know... attack us? I must be dreaming..."

"No, he attacked us all right, Sokka," Zuko said.

"But it wasn't him!" Katara clenched her fists. "His tattoos weren't glowing white in the usual Avatar State. They were red! It was like he was possessed or something!"

"His heart isn't himself," Toph added. "I'm worried for Twinkle Toes."

"Of course Aang wouldn't do that. But- how are we supposed to help him? When we don't understand what's going on?" Sokka gazed at all three of them.

"I don't know, but we need to go after him," Zuko gave a curt nod before running out.

"Come on," Katara helped Toph up.

"I'm fine, Sugar Queen. We need to find Aang."

"I hope we aren't too late..." Katara frowned as she, Sokka and Toph followed Zuko out from the palace.

And sure enough they found that Aang didn't take Appa. "Did he take his glider?"

"Up there!" Sokka pointed. It was clear that Aang was flying his glider through the air heading East.

"Toph," Katara turned to the earth bender.

"Just tell me where to go since I can't see him in the air," she said.

"Head East," Sokka said. "He's heading towards the wall of Ba Sing Se."

"On it!" Toph stomped her foot against the earth to summon a giant platform to roll over the street avoiding all the citizens from getting crushed in the process.

"Aang!" The Airbender could bear his name being screamed over the air. He gazed down to find Toph earth bending a moving platform of rock towards him.

"No! Stay away!" He yelled, trying to propel himself faster. Katara sighed, taking in a deep breath. There was no way she was going to lose her boyfriend. She flung her water whip to snatch the end of Aang's glider sending the Avatar spiraling down to the ground. Aang held out his palms to prevent himself from crashing with a gust of wind as his glider clanged against the wall of a house.

The sound of rocks sliding echoed around him as he stood to find his friends surrounding him. "What are you doing?!" He demanded. "I told you all to stay away from me!"

"We're not leaving until you tell us what's going on," Toph folded her arms.

"But I just attacked you! And I nearly killed Katara!" Aang's eyes showed remorse and guilt and horror all at once. "I'm just going to hurt you guys until I end up killing one or all of you!"

"Do you really think we'd back off and let you run away again?" Zuko gave Aang a stern expression. "We'd just keep chasing you down."

"Zuko's right," Sokka took a step forward. "You need to tell us what's going on."

"I don't know okay?!" Aang snapped, closing his eyes tightly as he could feel the rag boiling inside. The urge to smash something, an tingling sensation. The urge to kill, it never made him feel so sick before. "Somehow when I bended Ozai's energy some of his spirit got into my body, and all I know is that it's corrupting me!"

"So your spirit is being corrupted?" Zuko asked. "By my part of my father's spirit?"

"Yes! And I am nothing but a danger to all of you!"

"Why didn't you feel any symptoms right away after the fight?" Sokka inquired.

"I don't know, I thought I felt fine and I did. But then I always kept having weird dreams, like really really weird dreams. I dream of blood, murder and killing everyone. And now it's slowly becoming a reality. I need to go far away where I can't hurt anyone."

"Aang, you're not alone," Katara reached towards him.

"I can't be trusted!" Aang stepped away from her. The last thing he ever wanted was to hurt Katara. "I don't know how to fix this! I don't think it can be fixed!"

"Yes it can!" Aang yelped as his arm was grasped forcefully. "Please, stop trying to run away and let us help you." The Airbender sighed, leaning into Katara as he coughed. He turned his head trying not to get blood on her. His stomach churned as he gagged, kneeling over as more blood came spurting out from his lips. He could feel Katara holding him tightly, and someone saying "sorry" though he could not hear the rest.

Toph was standing above him, lifting up a rock and then he was suddenly out cold.

The scenery was dark, the stench of blood surrounding him. Katara's body hanging, loose from the neck. The blood that stained his hands. Aang screamed, clutching onto the sides of his head.

No, no, no! Not this again!

And then his body lurched, the darkness blinded with light. The next moment he woke up to find his body encased in ice. He should've figured that they would bind him. How long was he out? He turned his head to find himself in a familiar place. The Avatar wasn't in Ba Sing Se anymore.

"You've been out for a couple of days," a voice answered his unheard question. He turned to be met with Guru Pathik.

"What am I doing here?"

"Your friends brought you here," the Guru replied. "And I sense a great deal of evil residing inside of you."

"But how did they?..." Aang blinked. Only Katara, Sokka and Toph knew about Guru Pathik being in the Eastern Air Temple. Then it came crashing into him like a boulder. Toph knocked him out cold, they flew here on Appa.

"You don't need to worry about them." That's when he noticed that they were sitting around him all in a circle. "You are very lucky Avatar to have amazing lifelong friends that will always stay by your side no matter what."

Somehow that statement made him cry as he began to sniffle. A hand touched his shoulder, rubbing it gently. Katara's touch was gentle.

"They told me everything that has been occurring. And I believe that you need their help more than ever. Let us help you Avatar."

The air suddenly shifted and Aang could feel his body burning as pain behind excruciating. "Ah!"

"Close your eyes," Pathik commanded, closing his eyes. "And meditate, let yourself flow into your mind."

Aang grunted the sweat burning against his own skin. Though he did as told, closing his own eyes. The others around him did the same as Guru commanded. Toph pursed her lips. Though she hated doing this, she wanted to help Aang whatever she could.

"Open your chakras, let them flow," the Guru's voice sounded like a far-off echo. The air was knocked out of him as Aang gasped. He was standing on a pathway glowing purple above the earth. Behind him he saw Sokka, Toph, Zuko and Katara.

There was chanting all around them. Some sort of mantra to banish evil spirits. Aang screamed as the pain came full-fledged. He yowled, screaming.

"Let it out." And then he did, letting it go as Raava flew from his mouth. The white spirit fell against the pathway as everyone stared at it.

Raava's whiteness was tainted red.

"What the heck is that?!" Sokka pointed.

"Is that a spirit?" Zuko leaned over.

"Looks like one to me," Katara said.

"I can't really see very well," Toph said.

"Raava..." Aang gasped, reaching out a hand towards her. "Avatar... spirit...."

"That's what it looks like?!"

"It's corrupted!" Aang could feel himself becoming weak. He needed the spirit... he felt like nothing without it as he had never gone a millenia separated from his other half.

"What do we do?!" Toph questioned as Katara ran up to Aang.

"Kill the evil spirit," Guru Pathik's voice echoed around them.

"Fine by me, I was done with this evil spirit anyway," Zuko held out a fist.

"I can't earth bend!"

"The imagination of the mind is limitless," Pathik said.

Toph turned, nodding her head. She summoned her earth to trap the wounded spirit as Zuko held out a flame above it.

"Wait! I don't think we should hurt it!" Katara turned her head. "What if you kill the Avatar Spirit?! We have to separate the darkness from its host." She held up Aang, helping him forests the spirit. Sokka stood behind.

"You must cut it out completely. It must be done."

The five of them knew not to question the Guru's command, as weird and horrible as it sounded. "I don't like this, but if it needs to be done," Sokka took out his boomerang. Aang was set down as he groaned.

"Me either," Zuko replied.

"On one, two, three..." Zuko bent fire as Toph bent some earth and Katara some water. All three of them pinpointing it at the black spot on Raava's spirit that consumed it. Sokka rammed down his boomerang tearing at the blackness as it began to seep out. Aang yelped in pain, squeezing his eyes shut. And then everything seemed to explode in a blinding white light.

Everyone was knocked back into their bodies from their meditative poses. "Aang!" Katara stood as the Airbender fell forward, gasping as he screamed in agony. The others gathered around him as he began to thrash. His tattoos began to glow flickering from red to light.

"Fight it!" Guru Pathik stood behind Katara. "You must force it out!"

Aang's body lurched, he could feel his spirit reacting to the darkness inside. Raava began to glow brighter as he screamed. "GET OUT!" His eyes rolled to the back of his head just as he turned to his side, throwing up black liquid.

"Ewww! Gross!" Toph stepped away to avoid getting splattered by the unknown substance.

"Someone take care of that, and nobody touch it," Pathik pointed at the liquid.

Katara lifted her hand to bend it as Toph bent some rocks to encase it into a ball before flinging it off the cliff.

Aang sputtered, tears burning his eyes as he could feel pairs of arms on him. He suddenly collapsed, passing out.

"Aang.... Aang..." he stirred, opening his eyes to find that he was lying down on Appa's saddle.

"How are you feeling?" A hand touched his forehead.

"Better," he smiled. He didn't have any nightmare about death. And he suddenly felt... at peace with himself. Finally!

"Jeez don't give us a scare like that," Sokka playfully punched his arm. Aang chuckled as he was pulled into a side hug.

"Glad you are okay," Toph smiled.

"Thank you... for saving me," Aang smiled. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"Hey, we are friends aren't we?" Zuko grinned.

"And thank you for helping," Aang slowly stood to bow at Guru Pathik who still stood down below on a building.

"It's always a pleasure Avatar. I am always here if you're in need of spiritual assistance."

Aang sighed softly, turning as he could feel Katara wrap her arms around him. He relaxed into her hold, burying his face into her shoulder. She smelled of jasmine flowers, and it soothed him. Katara pulled back before pressing her lips against his as he returned the loving favor.

"Ugh, oogies," Sokka commented though Katara and Aang both ignored him.

"Thank you." He pulled back blushing. Katara smiled at him, cupping his cheek.

"I told you that you're never alone. Just promise me you won't ever run like that, and don't keep anything hidden from any of us." Though Aang knew she mostly meant herself, but that included the others too. He nodded his head.

"Of course. I promise I will never keep anything away from you guys."


End file.
